Excessive moderation sucking the fun out of AH

RadiationKing

Earthhorse wrote: »

And I'll turn the question back round again - does AH need to be all things to all people?

Which, ultimately, begs the question of what is AH meant to be? And that, right there, is the problem; it's never had its nature defined. It just sort of served as a catch-all forum for many years but as Boards has grown it's become an anomaly of sorts. You can find a forum for almost anything at this point. These days I'm not really sure why it still exists. People will say they want somewhere to discuss subjects less seriously and while I can understand that, I'm not sure if it's workable in the long term.

Specialist (for want of a better word) forums have their cultures established and I doubt many would be keen on having it completely changed to accommodate people who don't take as much of an interest in their respective subjects. Don't get me wrong, I understand the desire to discuss such subjects casually but I'm also aware a number of the smaller, focused, forums have been steadily declining in recent years.

I think if AH is to solve this issue of annual (or more regular, because it is a regular thing) criticism then people need to figure out what purpose it's to serve or if it even has one any more.

Okay, so you find it less intimidating to post there than you previously did but should the forum cater to your whims? Personally speaking I find it a less interesting place to post than before so am less likely to post there; should it cater to mine?

People can admonish us for romanticising the good old days of After Hours but they're also trying to sell us a pup about the bad old days. There was a problem with repetitive catch phrases and not taking misogyny seriously enough but the way some of you talk AH was a ghetto where it wasn't safe for women to post after dark.

There's a reason that meme, among others, are associated with AH and it's not due to any nostalgic exaggeration.

I certainly won't romanticise the old days. When I joined, AH was very, very quiet. Certainly nothing compared to today. We had the "Know your Nerds" threads where people would post up photos of themselves and the usual slew of off-topic and off-the-walls threads you sometimes see today but it wasn't nearly as active. The fact that we could have a thread of photos of posters should be a testament to just how different a place it (and the internet in general, I suppose) was.

I'm sure there's an element of rose-tinted glasses in looking back at that but, to my memory, the userbase wasn't nearly as belligerent. You'd still get people moaning about mods but that's almost tradition by this point.

Dyr

Dial Hard wrote: »

Re-regging is perfectly allowable as long as it's not done to get around a siteban.

re-regging is the mark of a coward :mad: (unless its to get around a siteban)

Nodin

Pink Fairy wrote: »

Yeah, on my 5th or 6th now....I'm starting to feel like a cat whis getting to the end of his time

Why though, might I ask.

Pink Fairy

Nodin wrote: »

Why though, might I ask.

Course you can ask

K-9

I suppose the problem is some people liked it the way it was 5 or 6 years ago. It's very hard to tell what people think is actually wrong from this thread anyway.

Zascar

Earthhorse wrote: »

does AH need to be all things to all people?

This is the issue I think. It's quite polarised as to what people want. I think its too full of childish nonsense and thread getting derailed within 5 posts never to recover. I'd like to see more moderation. However I know I'm in the minority as that is what most people love about AH and want to do all the messing they want.

I think it should be split and a separate forum should be created to cater for the people who want less messing and more decent conversation - but in a general forum and not in a specific sub forum.

Am I alone in thinking this might be a good idea?

Nodin

Pink Fairy wrote: »

Course you can ask

Yes, because I'm unsure of the point of the exercise.

Earthhorse

K-9 wrote: »

I suppose the problem is some people liked it the way it was 5 or 6 years ago. It's very hard to tell what people think is actually wrong from this thread anyway.

You're right. We should start a new thread.

Zascar wrote: »

Am I alone in thinking this might be a good idea?

There was a time when I was opposed to this but I think it's worth considering at this point given how busy the forum is, it could survive the split.

recylingbin

Zascar wrote: »

This is the issue I think. It's quite polarised as to what people want. I think its too full of childish nonsense and thread getting derailed within 5 posts never to recover. I'd like to see more moderation. However I know I'm in the minority as that is what most people love about AH and want to do all the messing they want.

I think it should be split and a separate forum should be created to cater for the people who want less messing and more decent conversation - but in a general forum and not in a specific sub forum.

Am I alone in thinking this might be a good idea?

Split it in two then.
One forum for the perpetually outraged, grief mongering, PC junkies and another for those of us who are normal human beings.
We can call them after fun and after hours respectively.

Pink Fairy

Nodin wrote: »

Yes, because I'm unsure of the point of the exercise.

Different people have different reasons

alwaysadub

Earthhorse wrote: »

And I'll turn the question back round again - does AH need to be all things to all people?

Okay, so you find it less intimidating to post there than you previously did but should the forum cater to your whims? Personally speaking I find it a less interesting place to post than before so am less likely to post there; should it cater to mine?

People can admonish us for romanticising the good old days of After Hours but they're also trying to sell us a pup about the bad old days. There was a problem with repetitive catch phrases and not taking misogyny seriously enough but the way some of you talk AH was a ghetto where it wasn't safe for women to post after dark.

I've never envied the job of AH mods and right now they find themselves at a point where not only is the forum more active than ever but it's populated with people who are more sensitive than ever (not a criticism, just an observation). By deduction that means they have to deal with a more specialised set of complaints and a greater volume of them than ever before.

Ironically, despite this sanitisation of AH, in some ways I think it has gotten worse. The racism you used to encounter in there was casual, cheap and forgettable; now it's more pernicious with the recent debates on immigration in Europe being a case in point. That's likely just a reflection of current affairs to a certain extent but it's worth noting that in the past that class of customer would have been mercilessly slaughtered and laughed out of AH by many of the regulars.

I very rarely post on AH/ boards anymore, but I do lurk a bit. The bit in bold by Earthy is basically the same as what I was thinking myself, its not necessarily that the mods have " sucked the fun out of AH" , its that things have changed, and what you would have got away with saying a few years back, now causes uproar amongst many. Which in turn ends up with mods having to step in.

I personally don't think splitting AH is a good idea, surely all the funny/ weird threads would just end up in a place a la The Cuckoos Nest, (which I'm not even sure still exists tbh) Wasn't AH at one stage compared to being down the pub and hearing a wide variety of topics, some stupid, some brilliant, some total BS. I think splitting it would just be the ruins of it, but as I said, I don't post much there anymore so maybe I'm not the right person to be giving feedback.

Nodin

Pink Fairy wrote: »

Different people have different reasons

I suppose. I never saw the point as I'd only come out with the same aul crap anyway, which would rather give the game away.

intheclouds

Nodin wrote: »

I suppose. I never saw the point as I'd only come out with the same aul crap anyway, which would rather give the game away.

I changed before cos someone in worked twigged who I was.

K-9

Maybe a subforum for the more serious stuff.

MadDog76

Permabear wrote: »

This post had been deleted.

Convenient buzzwords to use but we both know that my "argument" for Mod actions to be more mature, as well as being consistent, is so that we can all post in an honest adult fashion without Mods feeling they have to spring to the defence of the highly-strung at the mere suggestion of them being possibly slightly offended.

Zaph

recylingbin wrote: »

Split it in two then.
One forum for the perpetually outraged, grief mongering, PC junkies and another for those of us who are normal human beings.
We can call them after fun and after hours respectively.

Knock it off with the personal digs or you'll cease to be able to contribute to this thread.

Fr_Dougal

K-9 wrote: »

Maybe a subforum for the more serious stuff.

No, terrible idea in my opinion. There are plenty of fora that cater for all lighthearted topics, AH should have a mix of everything. In fact I'd go as far as say that there's too much crappy nonsense threads in AH, such as interview the person above/below you. Those sort of threads belong in The Cuckoos Nest or Clearasil and Hormones.

4zn76tysfajdxp

intheclouds wrote: »

I changed before cos someone in worked twigged who I was.

Why? Who are you?

Fr_Dougal

Ailani Round Shag wrote: »

Why? Who are you?

Think it's Bono.

endacl

I'm happy with the level of moderation.

That's all I got...

Nodin

K-9 wrote: »

Maybe a subforum for the more serious stuff.

People complain if you joke, people complain if you're serious. Dividing the forum would provide two sources of the same complaints.

Buona Fortuna

How about a Mega Thread "Complaints about AH"

Cabaal

MadDog76 wrote: »

Should After Hours be civilised though?

Yes, I'd rather people are relatively nice to each other then the race to the bottom you appear to want.

Martypants1

Beasty wrote: »

I'll turn the question round - do you want AH to be intimidating - essentially putting people who would otherwise post off?

That's pretty much what it's like now because people are afraid of getting banned.

Martypants1

Penny Tration wrote: »

Nope.

Mods have a thankless task in AH. There is ALWAYS someone happy to moan that the rules are too strict, not strict enough, mods of other fora are given special treatment, the forum isn't funny, the good aul days are gone, etc.

You can't please everyone. People have been moaning about the "good aul days" on AH for as long as I've been on boards (10 years). There's always going to be people who don't like the direction boards is moving in.

I don't think AH is too strict. what I've seen the mods there do is try to clamp down on blatant racism, homophobia and misogyny. Surely that's a good thing?

Mods aren't treated any differently. I've seen many mods make appeals in the DRP that have failed. maybe the reason mods aren't carded or banned as often as regular users is because mods know full well how to toe the line?

I think the mods do a difficult job and they do it well. And tbh, the couple of infractions and one ban I got, I deserved

You might say that people have always complained but the numbers speak for themselves. Less people are using AH. The same posters over and over again filling up the threads. Why do you think people are not posting there?

Martypants1

Penny Tration wrote: »

Oh stop. Not wanting to face personal abuse or a nasty atmosphere doesn't make anyone a 'delicate flower.'

Are all of the female posters who avoided AH because of the rampant sexism and nasty posts delicate flowers?

Are the transgender people who avoid AH (yes, there are some who actively avoid it now) because they're sick of being told they're mentally ill, wanna be rapists and compared to paedophiles, delicate flowers?

Calling someone a 'delicate flower' and saying they shouldn't leave their house or go online is the standard rebuttal used by someone who likes being a nasty person.

I don't see the problem with any of those things. That's a persons view. That's the real world. If they want to just read things they want to read then they can just post in the transgender forum. The views that exist on here exist in the real world.

4 out of 10 people voted no in the gay marriage referendum. Were these people who aired their opinion intimidating gay people?

Martypants1

An File wrote: »

Do a quick search for "bitch" or "back in the kitchen", for example.

And this stops people posting in the forum? What a sheltered life they must lead.

I'm surprised girls play sports or attend football games at all then.

Like, I have used that back in the kitchen phrase to girl friends before, it's called banter. Surely AH should have looser strings than the rest of the site.

Martypants1

Permabear wrote: »

This post had been deleted.

We better ban the talk of riding and sex then or the talk of doing drugs? Hardly appropriate for a 13 year old. Will be interested to hear your thoughts on this considering adult content isn't shown or broadcast on radio before the watershed.

Martypants1

oscarBravo wrote: »

I know someone who isn't bothered by getting soaked to the skin whenever it rains. Therefore anyone who wears a raincoat is a pathetic weakling.

This idea that, because you personally aren't troubled by what other people say on the Internet, then anyone should be allowed to say anything they want on the Internet, is such a bizarrely self-centred one that it quite frankly surprises me that anyone will say it out loud.

People should be allowed to have their opinions.

Anyone posting in AH should be aware that things could be on edge. You know like on the news when they give a warning of distressing images before playing a bit with dead bodies?

looksee

Martypants1 wrote: »

And this stops people posting in the forum? What a sheltered life they must lead.

I'm surprised girls play sports or attend football games at all then.

Like, I have used that back in the kitchen phrase to girl friends before, it's called banter. Surely AH should have looser strings than the rest of the site.

People who know each other and are in the same room can do all the slagging / banter they wish and can read the mood as it progresses. You can't do that when you are interacting with a bunch of strangers on line. So you err on the side of being a reasonable human being and not trying to upset people. And your idea of what might be upsetting might be different from another person's, so a third party - the mod - gets to arbitrate.

If you think about it, what you appear to be arguing about the mods upsetting you by their decisions is just the same argument as you upsetting people by your comments. Does that make you a delicate flower?